Note: This section relates to marking assignments submitted through Blackboard only. Please refer to other pages covering Gradescope and Turnitin.
Blackboard assignments provide an array of options for feedback and annotations. There are a number of marking scenarios employed across the university for marking. There is no requirement for anonymous marking, however this is widely used. Similarly, some departments will employ the Rubric feature of Blackboard whilst others will mark in different ways.
Marking an Assignment
Once a deadline has passed the assignments submitted need to be graded. To begin, click on the Gradebook link at the top of the page. Below you will see a number of assessments, both formative and summative. Click on the assessment to mark. You should then see a list of the student names with their marking status. If you don’t see this, then click Submissions at the top of the page.
Click on a student name to access their submission. This will appear in the window below. If a student has attached a single or multiple files (such as Word Documents, PDFs, Excel Spreadsheets or PowerPoint Presentations) to their submission, these will appear in the centre of the screen. To swap between the assessment content or individually attached documents, click on the relevant document, in this example Global Warming Assignment.docx.
If the submission has a number of shorter questions, then these can be marked as a batch by clicking on the Questions tab on the left hand side..
The document can be enlarged or reduced using the zoom tools or displayed full screen. You will be able to add comments and annotate these documents ‘in-line’ with drawings or shapes using the online document renderer. These are available from the marking toolbar which appears above the document to mark. Click on the View Annotation Tools icon to access these options.
You can add plain text ‘summary’ comments for your students or attach a file, such as a Word Document in the panel on the right-hand side of the screen. Finally add the mark to the lozenge at the top.
When you have added the feedback, click Save Changes.
To move to the next student you will see left and right arrows to the right of the mark lozenge at the top of the screen. This will be disabled if there are no further submissions. The submissions will also be listed on the left under the student tab.
Marking Multiple Attempts
If a student has submitted multiple attempts, you can access these from the top right of the screen, click the arrow to select the attempt you wish to look at. This will be affected by the selections you made when setting the assignment up, for example if you selected Mark last attempt then this will be displayed by default.
If you wish to exclude a particular attempt, then this can be done by clicking on the ellipses in the top right of the screen next the next and previous student arrows. The attempt can then be either excluded or deleted by clicking the Exclude Attempt or Delete Attempt options. This can be used if a student has submitted the wrong file by mistake. Using this option means that the attempt will not appear in the Needs Grading count.
You can also override the final mark here. For example if you have elected to mark the first attempt, however the first attempt was a replaced by the much improved second attempt, then click the Override final mark option.
Marking Using a Rubric
If you have attached a rubric to the assessment this will appear on the right-hand side. Each criterion will be presented separately. If the detail is not showing, move the Show Descriptions slider to the right. Click on the band which reflects the feedback and enter a mark in the lozenge in that band.
The lozenge at the top of the criterion will be adjusted to represent the percentage of the total mark for this assessment, in this case 10%.
If you wish to add a comment on this criterion, click the + sign to the right of the mark lozenge at the top of the box.
Once you have been through all of the rubric, return to the top of the marking window and enter an overall comment. The total mark will be automatically calculated from the criteria in the rubric below. Ensure to click Save Changes.
Rubric Pop-out
When marking with rubrics, the rubric marking panel can be popped out into a seperate, moveable window. From the rubrics panel, simply click the popout icon. The rubrics will be presented in grid format.
This enables the marker to view all criteria side-by-side with the student’s submission.
Whilst the rubric pop-out window is open, changes cannot be made to the marks in the main screen, this prevents 2 markers making changes at the same time.
A warning message will appear if the marker has not saved the marks entered in the pop-out window before moving on from the task.
Posting Marks
There are several options to post marks. For tests the checkbox ‘Post marks automatically’ is ticked and the marks will be visible to the student as soon as you have marked it. This can be turned off for tests.
For assignments, once the marking has been completed and the grade added, the words Post 1 mark will appear in the Post column next to the student name. To post this one mark, click the Post 1 mark button.
If you wish to wait until all work has been marked, then set a date in your diary to post the marks. On the allotted day, revisit the assignment and click the Post all marks button at the top of the page.
Anonymous Marking
If anonymous marking is used, the student’s number will be displayed. The assessment is marked in the same way as a standard assignment.
If the student(s) need to be prompted to submit work, this can be done using the Send Reminder option. This will automatically pick up any anonymous students who have not yet submitted and send them a message.
Double Marking
Double (parallel) marking can be set for assignments. Each marker will only see their own marking window, not the other markers comments or marks. Each marker should complete their marking for all students on their list. Double marking may be combined with anonymous marking.
When both markers have completed all of their marking, the reconciler (a third member of staff) will be notified that the feedback has been completed. The student status will also change to Complete, however no mark will be visible.
The reconciler will read the comments and grades provided by the two markers, then allocate the final mark and comments, and post this for the student to read.
Delegated Marking
Delegated marking is used when a specific marker is allocated to mark a particular group of students, for example their own tutor or seminar group. When the assignment is created, a group set will be selected, for example a Tutorial group set. Markers can then be allocated to their own group. When work is submitted for marking, the tutor will only be able to mark the students’ submissions which have been allocated to them.